How To Keep Your Career Resolutions

Have you made a New Year's resolutions yet for your career? How will you ensure you make good on them?Forty-nine percent of Americans admitted that their resolutions for 2010 ended in "no change," according to a survey done in Jan. 2011 by the Barna Group. Would you believe that only five percent of people make a career or job focused resolution? If you are part of that five percent, then you are reading this, so let look at some great ways to make sure you keep your resolutions!Are you setting the right kind of career goals? Let's look at some better ways of setting goals to make them more attainable.

Develop a plan. Think about what you want in your career. When it comes to setting goals, make sure to be very specific about what you want. Set your goals into small increments with milestones so that you can measure how close you are to meeting them. Put these steps into actions by creating an action plan that is catered to achieving each step by a specific point in time. Try to set these goals in a specific order of small steps that lead to an ultimate career goal.

Make your goals challenging. If you make the goals challenging, then you are more apt to make yourself achieve them. In the book Hard Goals: The Secret to Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be, author Mark Murphy writes, "The more difficult the goal, the better your performance will be." Murphy also says that there is a sweet spot of difficulty that awakens your senses - and if the goal is not difficult enough, then you won't call forth the brainpower to stay committed to the goal. So find that sweet spot!

Set realistic goals. When setting your goals, make sure you are not reaching too far too soon by skipping all the steps it takes to get to the ultimate goal. If it is unrealistic at this time, it won't be later…as long as you take small methodical steps to get there.

Hold yourself accountable. Check in with yourself regularly. You may even want to keep a task chart or calendar that outlines what you should be doing each day in order to attain your goal. An article on How Stuff Works gave some great questions to ask yourself to evaluate if your goals are realistic, including:

Do you have the time to commit to the goals you've set for yourself?

Do you have the needed education or skill sets? If not, will you be able to learn these skills?

Do you have the resources available to meet your objectives?

Do the items on your list suit you as a person - your personality and interests?

Do they fit the lifestyle you have or hope to have?

Do your goals complement one another? In other words, does achieving one goal conflict with your attempts to achieve another?

Is the market for your chosen career limited?

Are your ambitions achievable in the time frame you've set?

Publicize them. This may sound scary, but if you make yourself accountable in front of others, then you will work even harder and eventually they will start holding you accountable as well. Most people don't want to fail publicly or feel like they have let everyone down, rather than just themselves.

Reward yourself for progress. Make sure to reward yourself when you reach certain milestones. It should be something work-related - and maybe even something you need to get yourself on track for the next steps in your action plan, such as software or technology that will help you. It can also be something small, but just make it something that you appreciate so you will stay motivated to keep going.

Are you ready to make some new career resolutions that you can stick to? Now is the time. Get out there and initiate your action plan now!

What are some of your career resolutions? What steps are you going to take to ensure you follow through?

Andy Von Kennel is the co-founder of TruYuu, an online service that helps people present themselves as more than just a resume to employers. You can connect with Andy and the TruYuu team on Facebook and Twitter.